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The Virtues of Microadventures

Alastair Humphreys’ friend Ben Saunders as they head for Greenland’s ice cap to test equipment for a planned Antarctica expedition.Credit
Alastair Humphreys

Alastair Humphreys adventure-hopped for a decade, starting with a four-year round-the-world bicycle trip after college. From there, the British author, blogger and motivational speaker traversed southern India, rowed across the Atlantic Ocean and trekked 1,000 miles across the Arabian Peninsula’s Empty Quarter.

But it was a series of mini-expeditions in his homeland that earned him the title of a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012. Since then, Mr. Humphreys, author of the recently published “Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes,” has been preaching the gospel of short, perspective-shifting bursts of travel closer to home, inspiring followers to pitch a tent in nearby woods, explore their city by moonlight, or hold a family slumber party in the backyard.

Mr. Humphreys, 38, talked about how people can benefit from outdoor escapes. Following are edited excerpts.

Q. What led you to downsize from global adventures to regional ones?

A. Originally I set myself on a course of being a quintessential heroic British explorer and did that sort of thing for quite a few years. But a couple things happened. During the motivational talks I give, the audience would call themselves “normal people,” while I was “the adventurer.” But I’m a normal person, too, and I wanted them to see they could go on their own adventures. Also, I have a wife and two young children, and I couldn’t go off for months at a time. To stop myself from going stir-crazy, I came up with adventures closer to home.

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Alastair Humphreys.

Your first microadventure in 2011 was relatively difficult, but you’ve scaled back. Why?

Yeah, the first was when I decided to walk a lap of the M25 motorway, the 120-mile road around London. I live quite near it and while it seems rather boring, I started to get curious about where it went. It was also a metaphor for finding pockets of beauty wherever you are, one of the things I love about adventure. I absolutely loved that walk. My original idea was to try to do the most epic things I possibly could without going far, but I found that “epic” limited people from participating in the idea. The key is getting beyond the excuses. If you can’t climb a mountain, climb a hill.

I’m not a brave, adrenaline type, but expeditions have done so much for my life. Just waking up on a hilltop makes me feel so much happier, and that carries through in other areas. I’d like to help others experience that. I hear from quite a few people who pour out their hearts to me, dads and lads bonding, overworked city types sleeping on a hill. Sleeping on a hill won’t change your life, but it can be a tiny step toward making the changes.

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One of your catchphrases is “a 5-to-9 adventure.” What does that mean?

A lot of people use working from 9 to 5 as an obstacle. But instead, look at the opportunity. After 5 p.m., you have 16 hours that are all yours. So you can ride your bike or take the train out of town, sleep outside somewhere and come back to work maybe a bit rumpled but feeling great.

No, you can take your entire mattress from the bed into the garden. It’s about being outside, ideally under the stars. I’m trying to remove as many barriers as possible, but the one thing I’m not willing to compromise on is you have to be out overnight.

You’ve gathered quite a following through social media. What stories have adventurers shared?

One thing that’s been great is that local microadventures groups have started to pop up. People post all sorts of trips. One guy in New York wrote about following the Hudson River by bike all the way to Manhattan. I didn’t invent bike rides or sleeping out, but I think the hashtag (#microadventure) makes it look a little cooler, and seeing what other people are doing becomes inspiring.

Do you see any differences between British and American would-be microadventurers?

One challenge is that Americans tend to worry more about the legality of things like sleeping on a hill, or the presence of rattlesnakes and people with guns. But Americans perhaps even more than Brits need to get out of the office because they work so many hours. Plus, America has so much empty space and beauty.

A version of this article appears in print on March 22, 2015, on Page TR3 of the New York edition with the headline: Alastair Humphreys on the Virtues of Shorter Adventures. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe